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Local ad agency fires back at Abercrombie CEO

By Beth KassabOrlando Sentinel Columnist

The owner of a local ad agency is so disgusted by comments from Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries that this morning he's hanging posters from his high-visibility office window with, well, a special message for the clothing retailer.

Let's just say Julio Lima is using certain letters of the alphabet to drop the f-bomb on Abercrombie.

Judging by the reaction to my column on the retailer's exclusionary reasons for refusing to make clothes for girls in sizes XL and XXL (though it does make those sizes for boys), there are more than a few other people in Orlando who share Lima's sentiment.

"He's [Jeffries] so arrogant and elitist in his attitude toward his customers," Lima, owner of Say It Loud advertising agency, told me Friday morning as he was about to hang the posters. "It's just a really stupid business decision for him to make those kinds of statements."

The offending words from Jeffries are seven years old, but resurfaced last week in a Business Insider story that noted how Abercrombie won't make the largest sizes for girls.

Other acts of protests have broken out around the country. One man is on an effort to collect Abercrombie clothes and hand them out to homeless people. A mom packed up her teenage daughters' A&F clothes and mailed them back to Jeffries. Stores in some cities such as Chicago have contended with picketers.

If you want to see Lima's posters for yourself just drive by his office at 1121 N. Mills Ave., across from Track Shack.